Posted on: Saturday, August 28, 2004
Griswold led consecration of first openly gay bishop
Advertiser Staff
The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold III, will make a five-day stop in Hawai'i in December.
Episcopal Diocese of Hawai‘i The Episcopal Diocese of Hawai'i is one of the smallest dioceses in the Episcopal Church. It has a diocesan school, St. Andrew's Priory School for Girls, and founded three now-independent but still Episcopal-related schools: Iolani in Honolulu, Seabury Hall on Maui and Hawai'i Preparatory Academy on the Big Island; and numerous parish day schools and preschools.
Griswold has been in the news lately with the consecration of gay Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. The selection and subsequent consecration of the first openly gay man as bishop led to a rift between several groups, with some threatening to split from the main church. While Griswold led Robinson's consecration, and holds liberal views personally, he also allowed two statements against same-sex behavior, issued by the world's primates, to go out without issuing dissent.
Before the consecration, he said, "I stand fully behind the careful process used by the Diocese of New Hampshire to discern who it wished to have as its next bishop, and I also fully respect the decision of the General Convention and the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church."
Before being elected presiding bishop in 1998, Griswold served as bishop of Chicago, and is in the fifth year of a nine-year term. He succeeded the Rev. Edmond Browning, the only presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church with ties to Hawai'i. Browning had been bishop of this diocese for 10 years.
The bishop will be present at the 10 a.m. Sunday service of Holy Eucharist Dec. 5 at St. Andrew's Cathedral. He's also scheduled to visit the Neighbor Islands. Other details of his itinerary were not available.
The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold III was elected presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in 1998.
• • •
| Episcopal Church numbers and leaders
The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, made up of 76 million people in 38 provinces and 164 countries. Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold oversees the Episcopal Church in the United States, with 2.5 million people in 7,500 churches spread over 113 dioceses. Bishop Richard S.O. Chang oversees the Episcopal Diocese of Hawai'i's 6,000 people who meet in 40 churches on five islands. |
